Prompted by call of Filipino organizations, separate investigations were held on the conditions of Filipino migrants in The Netherlands and South Korea.
On August 1, the South Korea Ministry of Employment and Labor started an investigation regarding complaints of non-payment of wages of 91 Filipino farm workers in Yanggu, Gangwon Province. Migrants entered Korea through the seasonal worker program, a government initiative allowing foreign workers to work temporarily in the country to address widespread labor shortages during planting, harvesting, and fishing seasons.
In the Netherlands, organizations pushed for an investigation into inhumane working conditions involving 11 Filipino migrants. They worked as cleaners in Saints and Stars Gym, a famous gym branch in Amsterdam for the wealthy and celebrities. According to the complaint filed, they and Indonesian migrant workers worked over 12 hours a day for the whole week. Supervisors confiscated their passports and were sometimes not paid. Eleven of them are made to stay into four small rooms. Their conditions violated the country’s Minimum Wage and Minimum Allowance Act and Working Hours Act. The migrant workers were not given work permits.
The Labour Inspectorate investigated the case, resulting in the Public Prosecution Service arresting the company accountant for possible document and record forgery.
Migrante Korea and Bayan Europe launched a campaign calling for justice for Filipino migrants. They also called for accountability from the US-Marcos regime, which perpetuates the labor export program.
